Best Gardening Tools

Whether you work out in the garden or are an avid container gardener, you’re going to need a quality set of gardening tools. But how do you choose when there are so many types of gardening tools out there? And what makes one set of gardening tool different from the others? Our experts have worked with an extensive list of gardening tools and we all agree that the right set of gardening tools will make gardening easier for you. The right set of tools means you’ll put in less effort in weeding, pruning, and planting, giving you more energy to enjoy and appreciate your garden. In this post, we’ll give you a list of the best gardening tools on the market that let you do just that.

First and foremost, it’s important to have a set of garden tools that are ergonomic. Ergonomic garden tools are a worthwhile investment because they help to decrease the risk of injury, which can be especially helpful if you’re working long hours in your garden. Generally, ergonomic garden tools are designed to encourage neutral wrist positions to prevent wrist fatigue and hand stress. Many will come with excellent gripping material that will reduce the amount of pressure your hands need in order to grip or hold the tool. This can be particularly useful for those with tendonitis and arthritis. Our favorite three sets of gardening tools were chosen with those criteria in mind.

The Best Garden Tool Sets

The Fiskars 3 Piece Softouch Garden Tool Set is probably the most popular ergonomic garden tool set available to consumers. This garden tool set features a trowel, cultivator, and transplanter. Each of these tools are made out of cast-aluminum, which makes the product lightweight, and thus easy on the wrists. Further, the back end of the tools have a downward contour on the handle, which helps to keep the tools from slipping out of your hands. This is definitely a favorite of our garden team’s!

Another excellent ergonomic garden tool option is the GardenHOME Ergonomic Garden Tool 4 Piece Set. The price of this set is comparable to the Fiskars 3 piece garden tool set, however, the GardenHOME tool set comes with an extra tool–the hand fork. If you haven’t had the opportunity to use a hand fork before, you should definitely try it. Hand forks are really versatile tools that allow you to get into tight spaces, help with transplanting, planting, weeding, and mixing your soil. We, here at Gardening Supplies Reviewed, love the hand fork, especially because it makes mixing fertilizer or compost into potting soil so much easier! In addition to having a hand fork, this tool set is also ergonomically designed and of high quality as well.

The Radius Garden 4-Piece Ergonomic Gardening Hand Tool Set is another great option for ergonomically-designed garden tools. This particular set of garden tools comes with a trowel, transplanter, weeder, and cultivator. These tools are very light, but also incredibly durable. The quality of this tool set is tough to beat–in fact, one of the best things about this gardening tool set is that they come with a Lifetime Guarantee. In the extremely unlikely case that one of your tools breaks, the company will replace them for free. They also come in a variety of different fun colors, including blue, green, orange, and purple, which gives them some personality compared to other garden tool sets. We really love all that these tools (and the company) have to offer.

Best Pruning Shears

The Gardener’s Friend Shears/pruners are an excellent choice for those gardeners who need some extra help from the tool when pruning. These ergonomic shears were built such that they provide support to those who have weak hands. Specifically, The Gardener’s Friend company states that they “estimate from half to one third of the hand squees pressure is required compared to a normal anvil or bypass pruners.” Although these shears are a little more expensive than your average shears (around $35-$40), these shears are built to last, something you can immediately tell when handling these shears. All in all, we very much recommend these pruners!

A less expensive option for great pruning shears is the Fiskars Traditional Bypass Pruning Shears. These pruning shears cost about $10 for a pair and is constructed with rust-resistant steel. A great feature of this pair of shears is that it has a self-cleaning sap groove that helps clear the blade of sap and sticking, which can make your job a lot easier! The cutting capacity for the Fiskars shears is up to 5/8 of an inch. All in all, these are a great pair of basic shears and are sure to last you several seasons.

Icing-on-the-Cake Tools

The following list of tools are gardening tools that we’ve deemed to be icing-on-the-cake tools! These tools don’t usually come with your traditional garden tool sets, but having them can certainly make gardening a lot easier and fun!

Fiskars Uproot Weed and Root Remover. As gardeners, we’ve probably all spent countless hours weeding on our hands and knees. Did you know that there are tools out there that allow you to weed without having to get down on the ground? The Fiskars Uproot Weed and Root Remover is one of those tools and makes weeding much less tedious and so much more easier on your joints, and is a great alternative to using herbicides that can be damaging to your garden. The tool itself is made ingeniously. In order to use it, you insert it into the soil, whereafter the blades of the tool effectively grip the weed, and pulling it out is easy as pie. Best of all, all of this happens in a matter of seconds. This is definitely a tool that everyone should have in their tool shed.

The Fiskars Softouch Weeder is another weeding tool that we especially recommend. Although you’ll have to get down on the ground with this weeder, this weeder has benefits that the Fiskars Uproot Weed and Root Remover doesn’t! Specifically, this weeder is perfect for getting those pesky weeds that so often sprout up between the slabs of stone in your garden! The forked tip allows you to get to the roots of the weeds, helping you to eliminate your weed problem at the source. Fiskars tools are always handsomely made, and this weeder is no exception and the Gardening Supplies Reviewed team highly endorses this tool!

So, it’s becoming quite apparent that we have a lot of Fiskars tools on this best gardening tools review page! Our last Fiskars tool we recommend is the Softouch Micro-tip Pruning Snip. This is a really great tool that’s perfect for trimming, snipping, and deadheading. Every member of our gardening team has their own pair of these snips! The blades on this pair of pruning snips are very sharp and durable, making cutting a breeze. In order to keep the blade in tip-top shape, these snips come with a cap. The snips also feature a locking mechanism to protect both the blades, and you! A final plus of this pair of snips is the fact that it was awarded the Arthritis Foundation Ease-of-Use Commendation for its design–how cool is that? This tool is a great addition to anyone’s gardening tool set and you can purchase one here.

If you’d like to purchase a tiller, the Flexrake ClassiFlower and Vegetable Tiller is the right tool for you. This tool is solidly built and features a non-slip grip. Its performance in the garden is also exceptional–the ease with which it cuts through soil is unmatched. The handle is also long, and the head of the tool is a good weight, giving you the maximum leverage for your swing. This is a great tool and we highly recommend it.

The last icing-on-the-cake product we recommend you picking up is a bucket caddy. Bucket caddies are extremely useful and help you not only organize your tools, but transport them all around your garden so that you have whatever tool you need at all times, reducing the need to run back and forth from the garden to the shed to keep changing tools. The Fiskars Garden Bucket Caddy features nine pockets and two pencil pockets. This caddy fits a five gallon bucket and secures on with a velcro strap. Another plus is that you can even wear this item! This bucket caddy is intended for use with only a few tools, so if you’re interested in something a little more heavy duty, the Bucket Boss might be better for you. Regardless, the Fiskars Garden Bucket Caddy has proved immensely useful in our gardens, and are sure to be useful in yours as well!